WEEKLY TRENDS REPORT
10 July 2026
Pictured: Edited image using Gemini
THIS WEEK’S FORECAST
FOR YOUR INFO
TikTok trends
“Woah mama I’m trapped in an orb” Somehow Elvis has returned.
South Korea (and us) are obsessed with crunchy squish toys from Dongdaemun stationary street.
ICYMI
Love and Deepspace vs their fans after the cancellation of a new character.
Kai Cenat makes a return to streaming after a 9-month hiatus for the start of Streamer University 2.
Phrase of the week
“Is Summerween really a thing?” Spooky Szn with the sun should be all year around.
Digi updates
How the corporate girl 9-5 videos are showing the realities of working at a desk. Our 9-5 is watching these.
Gen Z in China are turning to nostalgic Chinese Dreamcore. Sobbing for a past we never had.
This week’s dates & microtrends
Tea of the week
Young people don’t believe in the future, are going full YOLO and are spending their pension early.
What we’re loving
The Wimbledon queue is full of fascinating people and everyone’s clamouring for a World Cup charm bracelet.
Our favourite tourist, FreddyLA7 got bullied off X Thankfully he has an Instagram.
Established trends
Can Europe survive without air-con? No, please save us!
Insights of the week
Colourful pimple patches has destigmatised acne and made them super-duper cool.
How every World Cup game feels like a home game.
Weekly doses of cute
CatchCat, marriage means all the cats come too cat-jamas Cat-ro! And Kyoto with dad and son.
On our radar
The Odyssey – 17 July
Gracie Abrams: Daughter From Hell – 17 July
Steve Lacy: Oh yeah? – 17 July
Syd: Beard – 17 July
Rising trends
YouTuber is the new astronaut. Young kids want to be influencers so they can be rich and famous.
BBQ lovers are splurging and investing in expensive grills. It’s like buying a boat except you can’t go anywhere and it doesn’t do well with water.
The future
PlayStation says no more physical disks in 2028 Do they not look at the WF? The people want analogue!
Stat of the week
The NHS will launch a walking reward program for those who walk 30 mins a day or 26 miles a month
Ones to watch
The Bayeux Tapestry unfurls in London, Siren Head movie incoming, Heat 2 got a new iconic duo Minions & Monsters weak debut and Canada in Eurovision.
TREND TRACKING
How some of the trends we’ve identified have evolved in recent months
The Summer of Ludd
New York’s Tompkins Square Park has hosted the Luddite Festival teaching people how to ditch the phones and be more present IRL. Attendees attend seminars like how to date and flirt offline, how to mend clothing and how to get off Spotify and reclaim their music taste. Performances included the history of the luddite movement and “Google in real life” Q&As, and handmade zines published think pieces about the rise of surveillance tech in schools. The event itself was advertised entirely offline, through newsletters, printed posters and word of mouth, drawing 300 people along. The festival was organised by Dan Fox, a slow tech evangelist, with the aim to make real life more compelling than an online one. The luddite movement is gaining momentum - phone-free events have risen 567% since 2024, and analogue summer is all the rage.
Fancy a poothie? Friendshipping
IYCMI, fibre has been everywhere this year. We’re optimising our bowels with supplements, high-fibre recipes and hacks to keep us all on the go. Creators are going viral for their creative concoctions (poopy snack plate?) and fibremaxxing tutorials, the most alarming of which being the Poop Smoothie, lovingly dubbed The Poothie. Created by Ariel Pastore-Sebring as part of her Blow Outz series, she’s combined bowel-loving ingredients like spinach, chia, oats and peanut butter into one aesthetically displeasing but apparently very effective invention. And may we introduce you to Fibre Daddy, Alan Lin who has launched Liquid Salad, which is exactly what it sounds like. They’re on to something. The rise of GLP-1s and the fact that 96% of UK adults don’t get enough fibre - as well as growing colorectal cancer cases in younger adults - means that all eyes are down below.
Social media is shipping influencer friendships. At a time when we’re making less friends than ever, we’re parasocialising with online friend groups instead – with fandoms even forming around them. Creator duos like Dom Roberts and Maya Umemoto Gorman of Upstairs Neighbors, Brooke Averick and Connor Wood of Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast, and Jake Shane and Brett Chody create new lexicons, with a single phrase (like Chody’s much-repeated “that’s like common sense, I fear”) acting as a symbol of belonging between fans. Reporter Rebecca Jennings thinks that in 2026, even friendship itself may have become aspirational.
Trend: Luddite Youth
Trend: Friends for Sale
Image: @rebeccawilliams.info
Image: @alanlinplus
Image: @coco0nthebeat
Weber Forecast Insight
As an antidote to how unpredictable everything feels, consumers are starting to believe in the unknown again. We’re all hoping for a big wake-up call and an alien encounter could be the solution as bizarre as that sounds! Believing in a conspiracy is more believable than what’s happening in the news. But it wouldn’t be surprising if aliens do visit that people wave it off as another AI hoax. People are only willing to believe what they want to believe.
This week’s long read
AMONG US?
Who doesn’t want a meet-cute with E.T
Extraterrestrial activity is taking off! While clamouring for confirmation of aliens is nothing new, (Roswell anyone??), it’s been a while since UFOs have been at the forefront of our minds… UNTIL NOW
Get your tinfoil hats ready. The UFO files kicked us off with a bang, revealing basically nothing except for grainy images of the sky. While the White House recently created a UFO council, the more exciting news came straight from someone who would 100% know something. Barack Obama’s viral comments on aliens confirmed we’ve not yet met them, there’s no conspiracy theory and no secret alien bunkers. But it’s not stopping the conspiracy theorists (and us) from believing.
In pop culture, the Alien cinema king himself –Spielberg – released Disclosure Day for a modern day
take on government conspiracy and alien coverups. Who do you believe? Steven “E.T” Spielberg or an exPresident? We believe in Pheobe Bridgers. For her upcoming album, she performed surprise shows in US towns with famous UFO sightings, like Roswell, Lubbock and Little Rock. Kacey Musgraves went full first encounter and saw “orbs” outside her plane.
The r/aliens and r/UFOs subreddits with combined over 1M weekly visitors are the modern forums for alien conspiracy, with UAP sighting posts and very impassioned discussions. Most of it is fiction but with how blurry reality feels right now, it can be comforting in believing in something bigger than us all. Will we see aliens in our lifetimes? Maybe not yours!
Image: @ babewakeuplakynposted
Image: @holdensmith962
Image: BBC
Image: @nytimes
Image: @barrackobama
BRANDWATCH
Inspiring creative from around the world
Krispy Kreme LEGO M&S x F1
Knock, Knock. Who’s there? It’s the Krispy Kreme partnership with Girl Scouts of the USA. The doughnut company has transformed some of the beloved Girl Scout cookie flavours into nostalgia filled, limited-edition treats. Rather than simply borrowing the names, each doughnut has been carefully built to recreate the cookie experience through different fillings, toppings and textures. And that’s on knowing your audience.
LEGO’s new Olivia Rodrigo collection turns fandom into something fans can literally build, with five sets inspired by her music, signature imagery and iconic tour moments. The range is full of Easter eggs designed for devoted fans to decode and share. Beyond the bricks, it’s a clever example of how brands are creating deeper, interactive love letters to hyper engaged fandoms. For Livies, the instructions are optional - the lore isn’t.
From pit stops to outfit drops, M&S just staged the first-ever runway show on Silverstone’s iconic Formula 1 pit lane at this year’s British Grand Prix. With 50 models walking through working garages alongside race cars and engineering crews, M&S transformed one of motorsport’s most famous settings into an unexpected catwalk, showcasing its new “Dress to Thrill” summer collection. Now that’s an industry collision we want to see.
Aldi Gonna Need Milk
Aldi has taken the viral “blind box” craze from the world of collectibles and dropped it straight into the grocery aisle. The Aldi Blind Box offers shoppers free surprise boxes packed with snacks, protein picks, fibrerich foods and fan favourites. Proving such a success, the brand gave consumers an encore with 5,000 more released – which again completely sold out turning everyday grocery shopping into an unboxing moment.
Our newest obsession? The Milk Man Hydration Calendar from Gonna Need Milk featuring Charles Melton. Merging wellness messaging for thirst trapinspired content is definitely the way to capture the attention of Gen Z. This is the perfect example of blending celebrity with pop-culture aesthetic to turn hydration science messaging into something far more shareable. 10/10 – no notes.
Image: @krispykreme
Image: @lego
Image: M&S
Image: Aldi
Image: @gonnaneedmilk
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